https://www.cs.vassar.edu/ 2026-06-09T19:24:23+00:00 https://www.cs.vassar.edu/ https://www.cs.vassar.edu/_media/favicon.ico text/html 2015-08-26T20:52:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/backups?rev=1440622373&do=diff FIXME update, convert to wiki, add link to isohome Backup With Tar ---------- * Overview * Creating a tar file of your entire directory * Copying the file to another location * Tar Documentation ---------- Overview While I make regular backups of the home directories on the Computer Science Unix machines, there are times when you want to have your own copy of your account. There are several relatively painless ways to accomplish this task. I will describe one of them here. If you n… text/html 2010-12-06T15:30:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/kill_a_process?rev=1291649428&do=diff Monitoring and Killing Processes Any process you own you can kill (this is not a moral judgment, just a fact of life in Unix and Linux). Killing an offending process graphically If the machine itself is still responsive (but one or more windows perhaps aren't) you can try one of the Graphical Process Managers on our system.$$xfce4-taskmanager$$````````$$gnome-system-monitor$$```````` text/html 2025-06-27T18:49:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/browser_wont_start?rev=1751050146&do=diff Help, my browser won't load! Generally, if you click the browser icon and it doesn't do anything, or gives you an error that mentions profiles, there's probably a previous instance of the browser that didn't clean up after itself. The first thing to check is if you have the browser open on another workstation. If you're logged into two workstations and try to start a browser on both of them, it will cause an error because the application wants to ensure that there is only one copy of it running… text/html 2011-09-22T17:43:12+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/java_system_tips?rev=1316713392&do=diff Java issues and tips Java remote method invocation problem Problem: When running a demo of Java's remote method invocation on our Ubuntu 9.04 based linux machines running java-6-openjdk the client could only attach to a server running on the same host.```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` text/html 2023-01-26T15:53:22+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/logging_out_of_a_desktop_or_remote_desktop?rev=1674748402&do=diff Logging out of the Computer Science Computers Leaving files open in editors such as pluma and emacs, or leaving applications running can lead to corrupt files and loss of your work because your files are not local to any computer. Your files are shared from a central server. Therefore, if you leave an application open on one computer and then go to another computer, you have several devices trying to access your files. Applications don’t like this. Firefox, for example, won’t allow you to star… text/html 2010-10-29T19:16:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/inhouse/using_htaccess?rev=1288379766&do=diff Using htaccess for web pages Please note: htaccess is for pages served from OUTSIDE THE WIKI in users directories. The wiki has similar ability, but it is set up differently -Greg Web Access Restriction by user/password This can be used in many ways, the user and password are not related to our system users and passwords, so you can use anything you like, however, there is no mechanism for the web users to maintain or reset their htaccess password so it can become a maintenance nightmare qui… text/html 2020-07-04T21:02:46+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/vnc?rev=1593896566&do=diff Using VNC What is VNC? NOTE: VNC is deprecated. For all remote desktop access, we ask that you use X2Go (found here). VNC is a system for interacting with a computer display remotely, over a network. This technology was developed by AT&T Laboratories, and is now available for free over the internet (distributed under the GNU General Public License. Visit the text/html 2020-07-04T20:59:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/filecopy?rev=1593896345&do=diff Secure Shell on macOS, Unix, and Linux Installation Any modern Unix-like operating systems should come with secure shell client utilities already installed. This is true for macOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandrake Linux, FreeBSD and many others. If, however, you need a ssh client, you can download one from the openssh website: text/html 2010-02-01T19:26:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/using_dbc?rev=1265052409&do=diff Using the script /usr/local/sbin/dbc Dropbox check script Description This script is used to look at information from file names created by the submit script used by the digital drop box. It assumes English month names (January, February, etc.) and cannot deal with spaces. It prints out the encrypted information in a readable format. text/html 2010-11-24T23:10:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/acm_jar_applets?rev=1290640216&do=diff Using acm.jar The ACM Java Task Force (JTF) created an API framework for Java programs which is distributed in the file acm.jar. Programs using acm.jar may be compiled and executed from the command line, or within your favorite Java IDE (e.g., Netbeans, DrJava). It is also possible to run your JTF programs as an applet within a browser or via the appletviewer. ```````````````````````````````````` text/html 2022-08-31T12:49:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/sshkeysmswindows?rev=1661950198&do=diff SSH Keys on Microsoft Windows using the PuTTY Utility SSH keys are what you will use to establish an encrypted connection over the network, e.g. the internet, between your system and a remote machine. The default type of key to generate is RSA which is good for most purposes. RSA is universally supported among SSH clients. Note that EdDSA performs much faster and provides the same level of security with significantly smaller keys. In general, though, for what you need to do, RSA encryption is … text/html 2011-05-05T19:17:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/inhouse/using_the_pickup_script?rev=1304623047&do=diff Using the pickup script with your course What it is The pickup script is a companion to the submit script. Pickup allows you to place files for pickup in your course directories such that those files cannot be read by your students until they run this script. At that time an entry is logged showing the date, time, user and directory that was picked up. If your students attempt to kill the script (say, after it copies the files and before it logs that it has) that attempt will also be logged… text/html 2025-09-30T20:45:21+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/password?rev=1759265121&do=diff First Time Login The first time you log into a CS workstation with a temporary password, the login page will help you reset your password. First, enter your username (this will be the same as your Vassar email address, before the @-symbol): Enter your temporary password, which should have been given to you by your professor or sysadmin: text/html 2017-02-20T19:44:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/drschemonmac?rev=1487619881&do=diff Getting Dr. Scheme to run on Mac * playonmac (www.playonmac.com) Install this program and then install the windows version of dr scheme. * x2go (<https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/x2go>) Install x2go on your macbook and then connect to the virtual desktop. One advantage here is that you don't have to copy files that you create, that is, they will be in your $HOME directory the next time you log into one of the linux machines in SP309 or the Asprey lab in SP. text/html 2023-01-05T22:19:50+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/mitm?rev=1672957190&do=diff Host Key Verification Failed At some point you may attempt to SSH into a server, workstation or device, e.g. “my_server”, that you have logged into before and you encounter a long, scary message as follows that ends with “Host Key Verification Failed text/html 2015-08-27T14:16:13+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/emacs_tips?rev=1440684973&do=diff Emacs Tips Emacs Command Shorthand From the emacs built in tutorial Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations: C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr> Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f. M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>. … text/html 2020-07-04T21:04:42+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/x2go?rev=1593896682&do=diff X2Go -- Remote Desktop Access About X2Go is a program that lets you use your account's desktop remotely. Imagine that you want to do work using DrRacket (or DrScheme, Netbeans, etc.) from your home computer but don't want to deal with the fuss of copying your work onto your CS account afterwards. text/html 2022-09-02T18:02:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/account.size?rev=1662141739&do=diff Account Size Here are a few tips for managing the size of your Computer Science Unix account. How Much Space does My Account Use? du -s -h /home/YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME This command will give you your total account size. The “-h” stands for “human readable text/html 2011-05-10T16:58:56+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/ewc?rev=1305046736&do=diff Export a window to the Projector Please note, the instructor's workstation in room 105 has a resolution of 1280×1024, the student workstations have screen resolutions of 14450×900. Please resize any window you want to export to fit on the display where you are exporting it. ```````````````````````````````````````````````` text/html 2015-08-26T21:23:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/apps/jedit?rev=1440624207&do=diff Jedit tip -. End of line codes When using jedit to edit files that will be saved on a remote linux or unix system, you may run into problems if you don't change the code jedit puts at the end of the line to indicate a return. Jedit calles this the ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` text/html 2025-03-05T18:37:15+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/top?rev=1741199835&do=diff Computer Science Lab <> Classroom : Resources Linux System Help * Linux Account Password * Printing * Remote Access * Browser Won't Start * Common Issues * Changing Desktop Background * Classroom Sound from Linux * Classroom Podium Monitor System Information * CS Lab Configurations * CS Department Firewall Overview ---------- Learning Linux... * Linux Tutorial * Command Line Basics * Advanced CLI * Emacs - tips * Bash programming and gene… text/html 2023-04-06T14:19:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/possible_issues_with_remote_webui?rev=1680790785&do=diff Possible Issues when using the Remote WebUI 1. Why do I get bumped off after 4 - 5 hours? There is a time limit on the connection because several people have forgotten to log out and left their user home account files open and tied to remote system. Therefore a timer will kick you off after four or five hours to close all of your applications and files for you so that your files are not corrupted. Save your work often! Close all of your applications and disconnect or logout when you are done o… text/html 2010-08-26T13:12:03+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/sysnews/inhouse/krock?rev=1282828323&do=diff kroc install notes * Installed packages on martha listed on the debian install page * then grabbed “latest stable” with svn svn co http://projects.cs.kent.ac.uk/projects/kroc/svn/kroc/branches/kroc-1.5 kroc-svn which claims to be revison 6412 text/html 2025-06-27T18:51:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://www.cs.vassar.edu/help/general_linux/priority?rev=1751050267&do=diff System Priorities Priorities of programs are something to be aware of. PS The first thing to do is to get to know your processes. The ps command lists out the processes you have running on the system. By using ps -l, an extended listing of your processes is provided. The fields of the most interest to this topic are the PID, NI, and COMMAND fields. The COMMAND field lists the name of the command that started your process. So, if you're looking for your runaway c++ program, a.out is the one yo…